I would say that the title fits the theme of the weekend, but you won't find these in Ireland. I thought this one was rather difficult to solve, but I enjoyed it!

And kudos to R. Maltby for a very clever finish to his diabolical cryptic in the April Harper’s!

7:10 pm March 15, 2013

Meg wrote:

Well, I finished! I got very lucky starting in the top left corner. Lucky meaning I only had a few row answers and one of them matched the beginning of clover 1. Once you get a few shaded squares you can guess the rest, and that helps. Quite a few of Patrick's answers are not the first thing that comes to mind. No surprise there!

9:42 pm March 15, 2013

Library Chick wrote:

Challenging for me, with plenty of erasing. Love that P. B.!

7:43 am March 16, 2013

Bill the Second wrote:

This may be the only time in my life that a thorough knowledge of sweet treats and lunchbox desserts did me any good at all. The empty calories finally paid off. An excellent and nutritious puzzle!

@David re Maltby - good one, and I want you to know I am giving up a lot of sweet replies for the sake of avoiding spoilers. But I thought the March finish was a little lame, unless there's more to it than was explained in the solution. Or maybe I'm just expecting too much.

7:59 am March 16, 2013

Hople wrote:

Unlike Bill the Second, I always have a hard time with the food ones. My sense of smell has always been poor so I tend to think all food is the same. This puzzle is much harder than most of PB's.

8:55 am March 16, 2013

Ken wrote:

I'm new to this. It looks like the example and the puzzle do not match, i.e., shape, center shaded square and heavy lines placement. Can someone help?

9:03 am March 16, 2013

Hople wrote:

There are 4 cloverleaves in the puzzle. The example only shows one

9:15 am March 16, 2013

Hilbilly Girl wrote:

Hople, Each number is a square of it's own. Follow the example in each of the mumberd squares. I am having a hard time with the clues. Plugging along.

9:39 am March 16, 2013

Braze wrote:

Might have been the first time I got the theme answer before I looked at anything else.

These puzzles are definitely a grind at the start because you're not given enumerations. Follow Meg: if you can get the first or last answer of one of the clovers, start there. If not, I've posted a grid with the breaks between words marked. Don't go running over to thenationcryptic.blogspot.com right away. Give yourself some time to try and get some of those firsts and lasts.

9:46 am March 16, 2013

Braze wrote:

Hople might do better trying to solve this puzzle over a bottle of RC Cola.

10:50 am March 16, 2013

L/C wrote:

Yes, I think of it as more of a Southern treat. I wasted a lot of time trying to shoehorn in s'mores.

11:00 am March 16, 2013

Hople wrote:

Braze, your posting contains two errors in the first cloverleaf. I didn't get the hint about RCA Cola.

But I did get puzzle. It was wonderful. Country houses was clever.

11:56 am March 16, 2013

David wrote:

Hople, you're right about the incorrect enumerations by The Nation blogger in his haste to try to "help out" this morning. This is why puzzle makers have editors and proofreaders!

12:04 pm March 16, 2013

David wrote:

Bill Second, I agree that the March Harper's cryptic wasn't one of Maltby's greatest creations. And, yes, I agree that the April puzzle would be fodder for lots of fun spoiler comments. I did my best to contain myself!

2:19 pm March 16, 2013

Cave Lady wrote:

I found this one harder than usual --- but I really do love them --- it gives my 73 year-brain a good workout.

Thankyou PB & WSJ.

10:47 pm March 16, 2013

Braze wrote:

Thanks Hople and David. I was indeed in a rush to get Sabers down to orchestra on time. "RCA cola?" That's a new one. Me, I haven't had an RC in years, but I can still recall the distinct note of cinnamon in its flavoring.

10:49 pm March 16, 2013

Braze wrote:

There's a consensus on the March Harper's: Erica over at Tacky Harper's Cryptic Clues has probably put it in the most colorful fashion though.

11:24 am March 17, 2013

gary p wrote:

"Each number is a square of it’s own."

should be

"Each number is a square of its own."

We're all wordies here

1:17 pm March 17, 2013

Ariel wrote:

So.. I am on the very first one and I think the answer is "smores" for a sweet treat with a marshmallow filling?

1:37 pm March 17, 2013

Meg wrote:

Ariel: Most of us wanted s'mores, but it's not. Sorry. Somebody figured out how to take the ingredients of s'mores and make a mass produced (2-word) treat.

1:47 pm March 17, 2013

sarasotasun wrote:

I think the answer to the third clue in # 4 should have only one "L", but PB seems to think it has double "LL".
That's news to me.
Is this creative spelling on PB's part to make the row answer fit?

2:13 pm March 17, 2013

6th gen hoosier wrote:

Concerning if the answer to the third clue in # 4 should have one 'L' or two, it may have something to do with the differences in British English, Australian English, and USA English.

2:32 pm March 17, 2013

JohnST wrote:

Wow! Great puzzle! For me getting started was hard, several false starts, second half was easy and fun.

2:46 pm March 17, 2013

Hilbilly Girl wrote:

I admit I went to the website Braze mentioned but I didn not look at the answers, just the hint of how the words were placed.(The empty grid.) Now I only like one word. The last one in #4. I can't figure out what the two word clue about action films could be. Any hints? The third clue in #4 only has one "l". I had trouble with that one too.

3:25 pm March 17, 2013

gary p wrote:

For the longest time I thought the commendable quality was VIRTUE and the blood lines were PEDIGREE, and those errors seriously interfered with my making any entries whatsoever in the top half. But then I saw that untenanted fit with having a tough time deciding, and that the latter fit with the light sources during blackouts, and the top half yielded. For a long time I figured the landlocked nation was NEPAL or TIBET, but that was of no use as long as I clung to my errors.

3:41 pm March 17, 2013

HG wrote:

Thanks to gary P, I figured out tenanted. I had a different beginning to the word for "having a tough time deciding". I had an "OSC" for the first three letters. Still haven't figured out the movie term.

4:03 pm March 17, 2013

Claudia wrote:

HG - The movie term is something I never would have associated with movies. I was able to figure it out only by finding the answer to the gas pump clue.

4:05 pm March 17, 2013

Blanche wrote:

sarasotasun, Hilbilly Girl (was that missing "l" in your name deliberate?) et al: The double "l" is primarily a Britishism but is perfectly acceptable. As for the last one in #4, you can't help but get it if you have the row that crosses it.

4:14 pm March 17, 2013

David wrote:

I didn't get the movie scene reference until I had all the letters! If you're still working on that one, the row answer that gives you most of those letters is the thing you get at the gas pump.

In my part of the world, the those knitted things have two Os and two L's.

4:19 pm March 17, 2013

David wrote:

There's was an enjoyable (I think) rows garden planted on the Tortoiseshell website this weekend (with acknowledgements to PB).

4:47 pm March 17, 2013

Hillbilly Girl wrote:

Blanche, I hadn't even noticed the missing "L" in my name. I type so fast sometimes I make typos. I finally finished the puzzle. My hubby always pumps gas and I never have. That's why I couldn't get that clue. Now I see why. Happy St. Patrick's day to all!!!!

7:22 pm March 17, 2013

JAB71 wrote:

Definitely the toughest puzzle in some time. I'm traveling this weekend so I had to work from the WSJ print edition. I had to write in my guesses (that's truly what they were) and still almost erased right through the paper. Really made me appreciate being able to download the PDF and print on bond paper.

10:38 pm March 17, 2013

10 miles north of Clute wrote:

Pride kept me from reading (and profiting from) the comments until completion. Wonder if any one else had a solving sequence of 4,3,2,1. Old enough that I didn't need to "Google" the 50's dragon puppet.

Thanks PB and WSJ.

7:23 pm March 18, 2013

Lundy wrote:

This is by far the toughest puzzle the WSJ has provided us with. Tough but fair (for the most part). I got the NL slugger right away, whose backward letters provided me with the ancient astronomer, but after that (and Groucho's leer) I was in bad shape, and most of my guesses were wrong, like DINING and DINGDONG in the opening squares

. FINALLY this morning I got a foothold in cloverleaf 3, and there was just enough overlap with the other cloverleaves to finish it off. Like some others, I didn't like the movie clue. What in the world does a SETPIECE have to do with action movies? Also considered MOORED and rejected it. When I was in the Navy (admittedly about the time of the Spanish-American War), to moor a ship was to anchor it, as opposed to bringing it to a dock .I'm guessing Mr. Berry was never in the Navy.

Still and all, a brilliant puzzle by one of the true masters of the craft. When reads highway signs, he must run the letters backwards in his head.

11:28 pm March 18, 2013

gary p wrote:

I thought that mooring a ship involved bringing it slowly and gracefully up to some fixed predetermined point for securement, while anchoring it meant to drop anchor wherever the ship happened to be.

Here's a joke I adapted from Chico Marx in "A Night At The Opera":
The Hindenburg was six feet from its mooring in Lakehurst when it exploded and had to go back.

10:21 am March 19, 2013

MarkH wrote:

Absolutely the hardest I have seen here. Too many obscure references.

I did finally got this, thanks to Blaze's grid. But even with the grid filled I can't figure out the answer to "Wide-Ranging Biographical work"!

10:48 am March 19, 2013

wildflowers97 wrote:

MarkH, I had a problem with that Biographical Work too, but when I got some letters filled in, I realized I started getting solicitations for 'that sort of thing' in college. Thank you, mailing lists...

12:07 pm March 19, 2013

DB wrote:

Enjoyed this one, got it done during lunch yesterday. Got the shaded squares quite early, and filled the puzzle in mostly in order. Got the NL HR player and the astronomer right off the bat and worked from there. Went 1, 2, 3, 4 on the clovers.

9:39 pm March 19, 2013

Alice wrote:

Not much time to devote over the weekend, but picked this up again today and very happy to finish it off. However - just underway, I was stumped by the marshmallow filled treat. Asked my husband's opinion and his suggestion fit. Interestingly, that's one of the top parade throws here at Mardi Gras, so can't imagine how it escaped me! Figured out the shaded squares about halfway in, and that really helped wrap it up.

7:23 am March 20, 2013

Hople wrote:

Mark H, it's two words. Wide ranging refers to the number of entries, not the depth of the information.

10:45 am March 21, 2013

Randomizer wrote:

Dear WSJ, this one was too hard for me sorry to say. Suppose i could get it eventually but i can't spare any more time on a puzzle. PB should save puzzles at this level of difficulty / time commitment for a book for people who like em this obcsure and or have this much time. Okay gotta get back to work now.

5:33 pm March 21, 2013

Liblizzie wrote:

Took me until today. Love these puzzles and the challenge they provide. My favorite
type of relaxation! It was difficult but satisfying at the end when I finally figured it all out.

7:15 am March 27, 2013

Pencil eraser wrote:

I think I read all the comments and no one has mentioned that a letter is missing in the shaded words. Just finished the puzzle last night, but I saved it for airplanes.

7:17 am March 27, 2013

Pencil eraser wrote:

Sorry. Just found the missing letter!!

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About WSJ Puzzles

WSJ Puzzles is the online home for America’s most elegant, adventurous, and addictive crosswords and other word games. Try your hand at our traditional crossword on Fridays, from a roster of the nation’s best constructors. On Saturday you’ll find a rotating assortment of cryptics, acrostics and puzzles with ingenious new shapes, from puzzle-masters Emily Cox, Henry Rathvon, Patrick Berry, and Mike Shenk.